No F1 thread?

[Mito Man]

I guess F1 is slightly unique in that it’s a whole new car, built in only 6 months, and they’ve now only got 3 days to nail it before the season starts.

Clearly 3 days is still more than enough time as the teams seem to be pretty happy spending half the time in the pits.

Reckon sandbagging would be a hindrance to the teams this year. Only a week until the next race and it’s not like if Team A is a second a lap faster then Team B can pull that out their arse. And then they end up messing up their own tyre life calculations.

Cars are sparking much less despite the bumpy track, and the 15mm ride height increase is really visible.

[Mito Man]

The Mercedes has an interesting bottom.

[jamcg]

[duncs500]

Looks like title number 3* for MV this year.

[DeskJockey]

Looks like title number 3* for MV this year.

Why? Has the testing been that uneven?

[duncs500]

RB look pretty dominant. I do hope Merc have gone back to their classic sandbagging days, but alas I doubt it. Ferrari are just Ferrari, doesn't matter how quick the car is!

[Mito Man]

Yep sadly looks like it. The Red Bull was on it from the start and it just looks nice to drive in the onboards. Contrast that with Lewis and George in the Mercedes it looked like they were wrestling a snake.
Ferrari will just end up with their 2 drivers fighting each other and taking away valuable points whereas Max won’t have that problem. Last year Leclerc was fortunate as it took Sainz half the year to get to grips with the car.

In other news it looks like the Mclaren will be a proper back marker this year. They just seem to be going backwards.

[DeskJockey]

That sounds rather pants. Hopefully we're wrong.

[duncs500]

Yeah, fingers crossed. Sometimes the next tranche of parts unlocks more speed from certain cars so it might bring them closer. Going to have to be bloody good to get near the RB though.

[Mito Man]

Looks like I called it pretty accurately.
Red Bull on fire.
Ferrari behind and managing to have a series of typically Ferrari fvck ups already.
Mercedes pretty much as they were last year.
However we may have a season of Alonso shit flinging the top runners to make things interesting/being a moving chicane for 50 laps

[Marv]

Channel 4 were hyping up how close things were in qualifying for the top spot.

The Redbulls are three tenths of a second faster than Ferarris, which in F1 is still a lifetime! Half a second faster than Merc too.

RBR will probably have better race pace…

[Zonda_]

Still good to see Aston making such a big leap.

[Mito Man]

Alonso maybe the only thing to save this year from utter boredom.

[jamcg]

How many races before charles takes an engine related penalty then? He’s used 2 energy stores this race alone, with the allowance for a season set at… 2. Especially with something letting go in the race, he may have a torturous season for reliability

[Mito Man]

You could see Vasseur’s look change to horror as he realised what he’s let himself into
That Piero Ferrari chap looks like he’s spent half his life in a concentration camp. That’s what Ferrari does to you

[McSwede]

Alonso maybe the only thing to save this year from utter boredom.

I managed about 20mins and turned it off.

[Zonda_]

Alonso maybe the only thing to save this year from utter boredom.

I managed about 20mins and turned it off.

You missed out.

[Gavin]

Hopefully not a season where the front two run away and hide, although midfield looks to be an interesting battle.

[duncs500]

They should just give RB the titles now and tell them to take a year off, there could be some interesting battles Merc/Ferrari/Aston.

[Rich B]

I know there's some interesting stuff lower down in the field, Alonso was decent and his car is obviously quick, but when you have RB (or anyone) so dominant, it's just dull. Was the same with Ferrari/MSC and RB/VET eras. At least Hamilton had some challengers - even if a lot of his races were dull.